Ghostlines won the Ned Kelly Award for best first fiction in 2009. The judges said: “Philip Trudeau is a great flawed character with an interesting past, the cast is well drawn and the social commentary well toned.”

Kathy Hunt in The Australian called Ghostlines “rough cut, grainy and good.” Read review

Ghostlines was Read of the Week in in The Sunday Age. Seamus Bradley wrote: “With Ghostlines and the Trudeau character, Gadd has created an opportunity for a series of novels, perhaps even a rival for Shane Maloney’s wonderful and wonderfully funny Murray Whelan series.”

Sadie Killen in The Herald Sun wrote: “A thriller with a neat psychological twist, Gadd’s Trudeau is a convincing central character whose own story is just as compelling as the mystery at the heart of the story … Gadd neatly avoids the cliches of the genre – Trudeau may fit the crime fiction mould, but his story and personality is strong enough to stand on its own.”

Ghostlines won a Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript in 2007. The judges said: “Strong dialogue, a tight structure, and an exceptional narrative voice take the reader on a journey to a provocative conclusion.” Read review

Bookseller and Publisher said: “Trudeau is a marvellously flawed hero, driven by the ghosts of this past and mired in a world where everything is falling apart around him … Crime fans will enjoy the compelling narrative, the succinct writing and the pleasing lack of blood, gore and psychopathic behaviour that mars most contemporary crime stories. I suspect and hope that this isn’t the last we see of Trudeau. FOUR STARS”

The Australian Crime Fiction Database wrote: “The most rewarding types of books are often the ones you start, knowing very little about only to be very pleasantly surprised by the totality with which you are engaged by the story. Ghostlines is that kind of book and Nick Gadd has created a fascinating thriller in this debut novel.” Read review

Crime Down Under called Ghostlines “an emotionally-charged debut occasionally marked with despair and guilt but presented with admirable style.” Read review

Readings bookshop magazine said that Philip Trudeau, the protagonist of Ghostlines, is “complex and captivating”. Read review